Beyond Burgos, to Tarjados Th 19 Sep 2013

Many pilgrims make Burgos a rest stop, and spend two nights.  Burgos has one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe.  Burgos marks the start of the Meseta (a plateau/praririe, flat with long stretches of a straight path stretching out to the horizon), so many give it a miss and hop a bus in Burgos. 

We had planned to stay the night, but only if we could get beds at one of the two small albergues, a 12 bed Albergue run by the Jesuits and another Parochial of similar size.  The Jesuit Albergue didn't open until 2 pm (we arrived at 11:45), so we pressed on, and the other was already full.  So, we spent a while enjoying the sights of Burgos (esp. the Cathedral) and, after a lunch of tortillas at a bar near the university, we pressed on towards our alternate destination, Tarjado.  It was a bit of a slog in the afternoon heat, and we were surprised to add up the distance at the end of the day (32 km), but delighted with the albergue and village we called home for the night.

What made this albergue special was our hospitalero, Fernando.  Fernando has walked the Camino 5 times, and volunteered as a hospitalero for the past 11 years, travelling from his home in Madrid.  His first Camino was back in 1987, when there were hardly any Albergues.  In those days, townsfolk would see a Peregrino and come running out with coffee and offers of a place to stay.

Our wonderful hospitalero, Fernando:

Climbing up from Atapuerca, we find this at the top:

You end up following the people ahead of you but this caused us to miss a turn that would have avoided this road, but it was nice and quiet and made for easy walking:

Welcoming message painted on the driveway, not so welcoming gate...

Getting into Burgos the short way involves walking alongside a noisy highway.  We chose the slightly longer route that followed the river.  Really beautiful walk in and worth the extra few hundred metres:

Burgos Cathedral, situated in the large central square.  Beautiful architecture throughout the city:

Stunning:

One of the locals out for a stroll:

Four nests, two bells and one stork.  We'd seen lots of stork nests on our walk, often at the highest point in a town, the tops of churches, but this was the first time we'd seen a stork in its nest:

We decided to keep going:

Then to our albergue.  Dinner in town didn't start till 8 pm, so we bought a baguette and pastry at the local Panaderia and cracked open a can of tuna I'd been carrying and enjoyed a simple meal at the  albergue.  Another donation albergue, pay what you can, and Fernando made a nice breakfast for us in the morning, starting at 6:15. 

 Bread, jam, cookies, cafe con leche and good conversation.  Larry learning about the situation on South Africa from Dani, barely visible in the photo: